Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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A Vaguely Depressing Slice of Life This is 40 (Rated R) by HEATHER GRIFFITHS Director Judd Apatow might be suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder. Increasingly, his films make me want to have a meal of raw cookie dough sprinkled with Prozac, served with a side of cheap liquor. This is 40 (134 minutes) might have likeable and even realistic characters, but he lost some nuance in his attempt to transition to a more mature story. As supporting characters in Knocked Up, Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann) served as a cautionary tale for Ben (Seth Rogen) and Alison (Katherine Heigl). In a stand-alone film we learn far more about them then we ever wanted to. For example, apparently (big surprise) they both have issues with their parents. Pete's Dad (Albert Brooks) is remarried and mooches off Pete to support his stay-at-home wife and triplets (conceived through modern medicine). Debbie's Dad (Jon Lithgow) has reentered her life after a prolonged absence, bringing her abandonment and control issues screaming to the surface just as her marriage is at a crisis point. It seems that Pete, in a bit of character consistency, is secretly a jerk. As pleasant and easy going as he can be, he lies all the time. And they're huge lies that are destined to be found out, like the impending ruin of his business. Meanwhile, Debbie (who is by far the more sympathetic of the two) is trying to make their marriage work even in the face of her husband's downright disinterest and petulance. He's not happy but he is determined to fake it until the problem goes away. She's not happy, but she can't get it through to her husband that she is running out of things to try, which means he is running out of chances to meet her halfway. Yes, it's supposed to be a comedy. I think. It is the approximately 3 million subplots that drag the film down the most. First, Debbie has a business now. It is some kind of boutique, and she employs Jodi (Charlyne Yi from Knocked Up) and Desi (Megan Fox, Ugh.). She thinks one of them is stealing and can't figure out whom. Second, their two kids Charlotte and Sadie (Iris and Maude Apatow) fight a lot. Both subplots were utterly boring and could have easily been trimmed. Don't work with family Apatow. It's too hard to cut their crap scenes. Knocked Up and The Forty Year Old Virgin are some of the funniest modern comedies I've seen. There is a certain goofy sweetness to the leads in those pics. They may be long, but they are never bloated. Here, however, the plot does not justify the length. This is mostly a series of vignettes that lack an overarching narrative. Like any other couple, sometimes they are happy and sometimes they are not. Sometimes they like their kids and sometimes they don't. They are children of divorce and their respective fathers each started a second family, full of younger half-siblings that make for awkward get-togethers. Honestly, this comes off like a failed sitcom that got turned into a movie. Overall the strengths of the film balance the weaknesses. This is not going down in history as his best work, but I think it will age well. The central theme of the mid-life couple crisis is relatable; it's the trimmings that take away. I mean, I find it hard to muster any real sympathy for the characters when I am reminded that they are two relatively wealthy and attractive people in danger of aging and becoming slightly less wealthy. Oh no! Their daughter dropped an F-Bomb! Family crisis! Really, they fight and make up so often during the course of the movie, when we get to the kiss-and-make-up finale it is just one more up destined to roll down. This results in a lack of catharsis and a sense that five minutes after the credits rolled they headed to divorce court. But yes, there are some outtakes after the movie. Enjoy. Now showing at Wynnsong HEATHER GRIFFITHS, Contributing 7, Carmike 12 and Carmike Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upandMarket Fair 15. comingweekly.com. Lena Dunham Strikes Again The comedy phenom is on a roll with the second season of Girls TV by DEAN ROBBINS Part of me would love to be 26-year-old Lena Dunham: widely hailed as a comic genius when her series Girls premiered on HBO last year. Another part of me wouldn't want to be Dunham at all: forced to show that season one wasn't a fluke by delivering an equally brilliant season two. But the premiere episode (Sunday, 9 p.m.) proves that Dunham has plenty more up her sleeve. The tattooed writer-director-star continues to find fresh laughs, fresh poignancy and fresh idiocy in the lives of her four young characters, who struggle with postcollege life in New York City. In this week's episode they revert to form, acting selfishly or stupidly in their relationships with men. Hannah (Dunham) manages both selfishness and stupidity by dropping Adam (Adam Driver) for someone else. Adam is not only disabled (after a car accident that was Hannah's fault), but also smitten with her after a long spell of indifference. That would have been Hannah's dream come true mere weeks ago, but now she's uttering extravagant promises to the new guy: "I'm going to make logical, responsible decisions when it comes to you!" Anybody want to lay odds? 1600 Penn Thursday, 9:30 pm (NBC) Whatever good President Obama has done for the country, he's been terrible for comedy. Presidential humor reached a peak during George W. Bush's administration but has all but flatlined during Obama's, with even Saturday Night Live unsure of how to satirize him. The new sitcom 1600 Penn overcompensates for the lack of farce coming out of the current White House by dreaming up a hapless fictional president (Bill Pullman) with an out-of-control family. In place of wit and subtlety, the series goes for broad gags involving the president's trophy wife (Jenna Elfman) and goony son (Josh Gad). Then there's the leaden dialogue. A visiting dignitary tells the president, "Your WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM trade deal will crumble like your nation's aging infrastructure!" Sorry, NBC, but so will your sitcom. Enlightened Sunday, 9:30 pm (HBO) Amy is a dim bulb who thirsts for enlightenment. In season one of HBO's excellent series — created, produced by and starring Laura Dern — Amy set off on a New-Age quest for higher consciousness after a mental breakdown. In the season-two premiere, she commits herself to a new quest: bringing down the corporation that has reduced her to a data-processing drone. Dern does a skillful job of establishing Amy as one hot mess. For all her interest in serenity, this woman could explode at any minute, taking out innocent bystanders like her mother (Diane Ladd) and ex-partner (Luke Wilson). The genius of Enlightened is that it creates sympathy for Amy's crazy stabs at transcendence. In this week's episode, she justifies stealing confidential documents to expose her company's corruption: "For two minutes there I felt worth something. Like I was doing something — something real. And I was alive. It felt good to feel alive for once, and not just dead and plastic and numb." Enemies of the dead and plastic and numb would be well advised to tune in to Enlightened. Continuum Monday, 8 pm (Syfy) A beautiful cop arrives from the future with a skintight gold jumpsuit and an arsenal of cool hologram weapons. Keira Cameron (Rachel Nichols) is accidentally swept back to 2012 while pursuing terrorists, a few of whom are swept back with her. In this new fantasy series, Keira must tangle with them while negotiating an unfamiliar world. The pilot is fascinating in the early scenes set in the future. Unfortunately, it soon turns routine as Keira hooks up with a detective (Victor Webster) and a teenage computer genius (Erik Knudsen) from the present. Cue familiar chase scenes and banter. To be honest, though, I plan to keep watching. Continuum had me hooked at "a beautiful cop arrives from the future with a skintight gold jumpsuit and an arsenal of cool hologram weapons." JANUARY 9-15, 2013 UCW 17